Northern Ireland

David Trimble says London and Dublin have broken promises on Good Friday Agreement

David Trimble said the UK-EU Brexit deal 'turns Good Friday Agreement on its head'. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire
David Trimble said the UK-EU Brexit deal 'turns Good Friday Agreement on its head'. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire David Trimble said the UK-EU Brexit deal 'turns Good Friday Agreement on its head'. Picture by Niall Carson/PA Wire

FORMER Stormont first minister Lord David Trimble claims both the British and Irish governments have broken their promise to uphold the Good Friday Agreement.

Confirming that he exploring the possibility of a legal challenge to the backstop on the basis that it breaches the peace accord, the former Ulster Unionist leader said the UK-EU Brexit deal "turns the Belfast Agreement on its head and does serious damage to it".

The former first minister, who alongside John Hume received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the 1998 agreement, said the aspect of the accord that "you have to handle with care" is cross-border arrangements.

"But the EU has come in and in this exit agreement that they’re negotiated, they, in the process of that, stripped out a number of competencies out of the devolved administration, out of the Belfast Agreement and put in place a number of top-down structures and a UK-EU body which is going to supervise," he said.

The Tory peer said the Good Friday Agreement succeeded "largely because it was bottom up and it had the overwhelming support of the people at the outset".

He said he wanted to maintain the current arrangements which enabled a frictionless border but said "other people were coming in to exploit this for their own particular objectives rather than to improve our situation or maintain it".

Lord Trimble said both the British and Irish governments undertook to support the agreement but "they have broken that promise".

He said he understood the EU's concerns that the north may become a “backdoor” for goods that do not meet its standards but that Brussels "doesn’t have a good case for… this raid on the Belfast Agreement provision and to hold out for something that is going to do serious damage to Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland’s place in the UK which is always going to be a huge problem".

The backstop, he said, could do serious damage to Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

When asked about the risk that no deal could inadvertently create the hard border that the EU was seeking to avoid, he said: "That’s the paradox of it – things can happen by accident and people overplay their hands and I think there’s been a bit of that."

Asked how likely his court challenge was, Lord Trimble said only: "If it reminds people to keep their promises it will be a good thing.”